This is a continuation of Thread 104979.
PAWN RIOT has just sent 20.Ka1, leading to the following position:
By the way, PAWN RIOT wishes us all a Merry Christmas.
So do I:
Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays
And A Happy New Year To All !!!
With Kc1, RookdoN,t get their most usefull files, rook belong to opens files, since he got his two rooks, he will mostly play Rb1 next and contest ours control of the file, that was a very good plan from him.
We will have trouble.
There is Ne8 that come to my mind, but nothing elsem, I do not vote now.
Merry christmas to him too.
Merry Christmas to Paul and everyone else!
I'm happy with our position : ) and I think that both ...Nh7 and ...Ne8 are good - we can re-route the knight in both variations.
I prefer ...Ne8 at the moment because it is a move or two quicker getting back into the game.
As for all those who are worrying about Rb1 from white, just ask yourselves what the rook will be doing on the b-file after we side-step with ...Rc8? So far I've only found variations where it is a target for an ...a5,...a4 pawn push.
Perhaps PawnRiot will find a way to make his pieces work together, but so far I can't see a clearly good plan for white. Qd3 with the idea of c3 to break the pin seems necessary, but we can play moves like ...Be6, ...Bxc4 hitting the queen followed by manouevring the knight to a better post.
I think specific move orders will be important from now on, so if I have time I'll try to post a few variations later.
All the best,
Streetfighter
If 20...Ne8 then what's next? The knight doesn't seem to have such good squares to go after that, since c7 and d6 are both currently occupied - we will need to spend another move moving the queen or pawn.
I think 20...Ne8 and then 21...d5 is playable, with the knight coming to d6 afterwards (also attacking the weak c4 pawn).
The plan of Nh7 --> f8 --> e6 seems more concrete (it appears like a better square) although it takes 3 moves to get there (and will then have the c5 square outpost).
Merry Xmas to all!
Where should the knight be placed? d6 via Ne8 or e6 via Nh7. I say e6 is the better square for these reasons.
1. it puts pressure on the pinned Knight at d4
2. if white plans to take the b file with his rooks that only weakens the protection of the pinned knight.
3. Ne8 is not faster because of the required pawn move to free it.
4. 19...Rb8 is still justified because it vacated f8 for our knight.
5. the lack of penetration points combined with the fact that d4 is such a glaring weakness means that the b file is of little consequence.
20...Nh7 21.Rb1 Rc8 22.Rb3 Nf8 23.Rhb1 ...
or
20...Ne8 21.Rb1 Rc8 22.Rb3 d5 23.exd5 Nd6 24.Bf4 Ba4
Something concrete at least. Please improve.
I still like the second line, but either looks fine. I'm having problems finding a plan after the first line, but we should probably try to avoid 24.Rb7.
Originally posted by ResigningSoonHi ResigningSoon,
20...Nh7 21.Rb1 Rc8 22.Rb3 Nf8 23.Rhb1 ...
or
20...Ne8 21.Rb1 Rc8 22.Rb3 d5 23.exd5 Nd6 24.Bf4 Ba4
Something concrete at least. Please improve.
I still like the second line, but either looks fine. I'm having problems finding a plan after the first line, but we should probably try to avoid 24.Rb7.
In your second line after 24.Bf4 I think we have a big shot with 24...Nb5! There are quite a few lines to calculate but I think we come out way ahead in all of them.
So... [b]21.Rb1 Rc8 22.Rb3 d5 23.exd5 Nd6 24.Bf4 Nb5! [b/]
25.Rxb5 Qxf4 26.Rd1 Bxb5; we win
or 25.cxb5 Qxc3+ 26.Rxc3 Bxd4; we win
or 25.Qd2 Nxd4 26.Bxc7 Nxb3+ 27.Kb1 Nxd2+; we win
or 25.Qe3 Nxd4 26.Bxc7 Nxc2+ wins the queen next move and the game
Maybe 25.Qd3 is better, but we have at least 25...Qxf4 which should win also.
Let me know if I've missed something though-it's a tactical mess! : )